Jan Masaryk

Jan Masaryk (14 September 1886-10 March 1948) was Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 21 July 1940 to 10 March 1948, preceding Vladimir Clementis.

Biography
Jan Masaryk was born in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary in 1886, the son of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia. He was educated in Prague and Vienna and served for a while in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1907 he emigrated to the United States, but returned to Prague in 1918 and became a personal assistant to Edvard Benes. As ambassador to Britain from 1925 to 1935, he resigned in protest at his country's betrayal by the Munich Agreement. In 1940, he became Foreign Minister of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, a post which he continued to hold in the government after liberation. Much to his disappointment, he was unable to prevent the Soviet veto of Czechoslovak acceptance of Marshall Plan aid. At the request of President Benes he remained in his post after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia's February 1948 coup, but his death in mysterious circumstances (either falling or being thrown out of a window) three weeks later signalled the end of the old, liberal order of interwar Czechoslovakia, of which he, and particularly his father, had been such important symbols.